Written By Dan Hickman • Toy Editor
Let’s open the toybox and get a look at yet another fantastic Medicom Mafex offering. I have been very impressed with their Dark Knight Returns line of figures and for a long time overlooked the amazing Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy figures.
Mafex has put out some pretty amazing offerings for those three movies and today, we’re going to more closely examine the Dark Knight Trilogy Batman version 3.0 Action Figure.
After the dismal failure of Joel Schumacher’s “Batman and Robin”, starring George Clooney, the movie franchise was considered D.O.A.
In 2005 Christopher Nolan injected new life into the beleaguered hero’s film series with “Batman Begins.”
Starring Christian Bale as the titular character, Nolan brought audiences a true “dark knight” by bringing Batman back to his roots as a dark vigilante, obsessed with bringing justice to an unjust world.
The success of “Batman Begins” spawned two additional sequels, “The Dark Knight”, introducing the late Heath Ledger as The Joker and receiving critical acclaim while earning just over $1 Billion at the box office.
The final film, “The Dark Knight Rises” took riffs from the Knightfall storyline with the villainous Bane portrayed by Tom Hardy, brutally beating Batman and taking over Gotham.
Anne Hathaway brought the lovely Selina Kyle/Catwoman to life and emerged as Bruce’s love interest.
Considered by many to be the weakest of the three films, “Rises” nonetheless also earned over $1B at the box office.
This Batman figure is the third version from the movies and is a tremendous addition to any Batman fan’s collection.
Review: Medicom Mafex 053 The Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3
The Medicom Mafex Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V 3.0 was a pleasant surprise for me.
As I mentioned, Mafex has created a number of figures based on the film series, yet sadly, this is the only one I’ve purchased.
Not sure why. I think this is a situation that I need to remedy.
Of course, I know what you’re waiting for… Does this Batman earn the fabled Triple A sweep for Accessories, Appearance, and Articulation? Well, let’s find out.
Medicom Mafex is, as far as I’m concerned, the undisputed leader in figure accessories.
Batman is no exception.
This figure comes with six pairs of hands: 1 fisted, 1 batarang holding, 2 trigger finger hands (sized accordingly for the other accessories), 1 pair open action hands, 1 pair with index and middle fingers extended. He has three head sculpts, 1 grimacing, 1 serious, 1 with the sonar lenses from Dark Knight over the eyes.
He has the EMP gun from Rises, the Sticky Bomb gun from DK and his grapple gun from Batman Begins and finally, three small gold batarangs as seen throughout the series.
Batman also comes with the traditional Mafex display stand.
I am suitably impressed with the level of detail applied to all of his accessories and continue to marvel at the amount of additional options to enhance your figure.
He definitely gets an “A” for Accessories!
Review: Medicom Mafex 053 The Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3
So, how’s he look then? I’m glad you asked. I have been utterly blown away by the level of attention to detail applied to the sculpting of this figure.
We’ll discuss paint apps a little later on, but right now, I need to focus on the sculpt.
For a figure that stands at about 6 inches tall, Batman is jam packed with amazing detail.
Starting at the head, each of the three head sculpts look incredible.
The two sculpts featuring closed mouths differ only in the eye pieces.
One head has painted eyes, the other has the white lenses from Dark Knight’s sonar sequence.
The third head has painted eyes and the famous Batman teeth bared grimace.
What is very, very neat about these heads is that they aren’t a single piece, but rather contain a separate piece for the chin and on the grimacing head, a third piece for the teeth.
What really sets this apart is the paint detail on the mouth.
Teeth and gums are painted and really look incredible.
Moving on, his body armor is very film accurate, from the ribbed neck pieces and armor plates over the textured body underlay, the detail very solidly captures the look and feel of his costume.
The gold belt is detailed, with silver trim and the black buckle pieces and features a number of intricately sculpted pouches as well as a peg for his grapnel.
Each pair of hands is highly textured and detailed with a nice mix of paint applications.
The fact that there are multiple shades of black and dark gray on this figure helps give it depth.
There are both satin and gloss black finishes on this character and serve to enhance each other.
Even the hands have small sections of gloss black applied to the matte finish to reflect the different components incorporated in the gloves.
I think what really surprised me was the relative lack of sculpted detail on the boots, however, the tread on the bottom is very nicely done.
Review: Medicom Mafex 053 The Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3
Overall the figure itself and the multiple head and hand sculpts very realistically portray an accurate reflection of the movie costume.
Getting into his three weapons and the batarangs, we are treated to even more exceptional detail both in sculpt and paint apps.
The batarangs are gold and the topsides are beveled to give that sharp, edged look.
They are really finely done and look exceptional.
The EMP gun is a solid black mold, with highly detailed sculpting.
The front of the barrel has a translucent blue inset piece, which I initially thought was a solid blue, but upon closer inspection, under lighting, showed a lighter white wash to it, giving it a really nice offsetting detail to the solid black of the gun.
The sticky bomb launcher is a treat to look at.
Black, silver, and gold paint apps are painstakingly applied with very solid attention to detail, such to the point that even the screws are painted.
There is a small splash of red on the main body of the launcher which corresponds to the film. I’m really impressed with this piece.
His grapnel is gold and silver and very well sculpted.
For as small as these accessories are, the amount of work that went into them is huge.
My sincerest compliments to the artists that have created this piece!
Overall, this is an exceptionally produced figure in terms of film accuracy and attention to detail. Batman has definitely grabbed the second A for appearance!
Two for two, can Batman make it a clean sweep? Let’s look at his articulation.
Review: Medicom Mafex 053 The Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3
Mafex engineering when it comes to figure articulation continues to impress. I have had so much fun posing this figure and displaying him alongside my other Mafex Batman pieces.
The armor design could conceivably limit movement, but it really doesn’t.
Batman can turn his head left and right and has upward and downward motion.
His neck does have some limited movement, which aids in the downward looking feature.
His shoulders are on a butterfly joint and, much to my delight, the shoulder pads are attached directly to his shoulder ball, rather than the torso pieces.
This allows for upward T posing, and full rotation, plus if the pads come off, they’ll simply pop right back on to their hinges.
He has a hidden upper bicep swivel, which helps enhance the appearance when combined with the butterfly to bring his arm across his chest in swinging motions or when holding his weapons.
The elbows hinge beautifully and his fists will very nearly touch the upper biceps.
His hands all hinge and pivot very easily and fit beautifully and snugly on the wrist pegs.
Batman has both an upper and lower diaphragm joint that has incredible rotational motion, can crunch forward fairly deeply and back quite nicely.
His legs feature the drop down hinges which allow him to do moderate splits, kick forward nicely and back somewhat.
He has an upper thigh swivel which turns outward very nicely, but can pop off the joint if you aren’t careful.
His knees will bend deeply, but not as far as heel to butt.
The ankles hinge up and down to a degree, have limited pivot and very nice toe articulation.
PLUS the cape has its own articulation, as each of the long side edges have bendy wires within.
The wires are strong enough to hold the weight of the cape upward and really allow for some amazing cape flow around the figure.
I absolutely love bendy wire capes, especially when crafted carefully and attached properly.
Of my four Mafex Batmen, this is my favorite cape, followed by the Dark Knight Returns, DK Returns Victorious, and finally Hush. (Of course, my DK Victorious has some issues as one of the wires has come out from under the plastic piece at the neck and I cannot get it repaired… oh well.)
I am pleased enough with the articulation to give this Batman his third A for articulation.
Review: Medicom Mafex 053 The Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3
Yeahhhhhh, Medicom Mafex has really nailed the Nolan Trilogy characters and there is a better than average chance that I’m going to be adding many of the other figures to my collection.
I was super happy to find this figure for the relatively lower price of $70, especially given that Mafex generally retails for $90 and up.
The amount of accessories, amazing detail, and solid articulation definitely make this a bargain and I’m very happy to give this figure an astounding 4.9 toyboxes out of 5!
The Medicom Mafex Dark Knight Trilogy Batman V. 3.0 is available at various online outlets, so be sure to check out sites like Big Bad Toy Store for your action figure purchases.
Thanks for checking in and until our next review… Geek Out!!!
Related: The Mafex Dark Knight Returns Batman Figure Is Incredible
